Safe Haven
by Zebediah
Summary: A group of travelers arrive at the legendary Safe Haven, seeking refuge. But what are they really after, and is it really as safe as they believe? Post-"Epitaph One"
1. Chapter 1

**Safe Haven**

**Chapter 1**

Midmorning, late spring, and already the heat was making the distant hills shimmer. The small group of travelers walked beside the old highway, the hard-baked earth being easier than the boiling hot asphalt for their feet and their string of pack mules. They were tired from weeks of travel, and the ever-present dust made them thirsty, but they kept moving. Today, at last, they would reach their destination.

In the front of the caravan walked a short, square-shouldered woman, her brown skin tanned even darker, her straight black hair plaited in a long braid down her back. She was the smallest of the four adults, and yet she was unquestionably their leader. Her face was broad, her features too strong to be beautiful, her limbs strongly muscled, but she moved with a feral grace that suggested a dancer, or a mountain lion. She pulled off her broad-brimmed hat for a moment to fan her face, then put it back on.

She looked behind her at her companions. The man immediately behind her was squat and powerfully built, as dark-skinned as she was, and his bearded face bore an unmistakable resemblance to her own. He thought of himself as her brother, and she supposed he had a point; whoever she might be now, her body and his had come from the same mother.

Beside him was a tall, slender, black-skinned woman with tightly curled hair. Her expression was one of enduring weariness. This trip had been hard on her, and on the small form slung in a fold of cloth across her chest. The baby was sleeping, but would wake hungry, and they had been on short rations the past week. When she stumbled, the man beside her reached out to steady her.

A large man with short hair the color of straw brought up the rear, leading the mules. He was deeply tanned, but naturally fair of skin, a rarity these days. His deep blue eyes were in constant motion, missing nothing. A rifle, relic of the old days, was slung across his back.

Wordlessly they trudged along, following the highway up a long rising grade. For the past day, there had been increasing signs of human life, even if they had met nobody on the road. The crumbling asphalt was patched with tar in places, and had been rebuilt where a bridge had washed out over a streambed. And the trees beside the streams were clearly being harvested for wood, but not stripped bare, which argued for somebody living here long-term rather than nomads.

Finally they reached the crest of the hill, and they paused, looking down at the dusty green of the valley below them. "This is it," the small woman announced suddenly, in the Spanish-English hybrid that she and her companions usually used with each other. Her voice was low and hoarse. She reached down for her canteen and took a drink to wet her lips.

They saw a collection of small, weather-beaten buildings lining the highway half a mile ahead. Between them and the nearest building was a tall chain-link fence topped with razor wire. A gate flanked by a tall cinderblock tower blocked the road.

"You think they will let us in, Lupe?" her brother asked. He insisted on calling her either that name or "Maria Guadeloupe", and she'd long since stopped arguing the point.

"Don't worry, Jorge," she answered. "I've been here before."

"No, you haven't," he contradicted her.

"A long time ago," she continued, "this was a town called Pleasant, Arizona. There was a temple up there in those hills," she said, pointing across the valley. "It was a place of refuge even then."

The blonde man snorted. "And now it's your Safe Haven?"

"Still you don't believe me, William," she said, shaking her head sadly.

"I'll believe it when I'm inside and I see how safe it really is."

"Let's get going, then," she said. "Are you holding up okay, Vonda?"

"Just get me there," the tall woman said in a barely audible whisper. "Just get me to a place I can rest."

There was motion around the gate tower; they'd been seen. The travelers advanced slowly, giving the people behind the fence plenty of time to look them over and decide that they meant no harm. When they reached the gate, a man stepped out of the tower through a door on the other side of the fence. "Halt right there," he ordered in English. Another man up in the tower pointed a rifle at them.

"Keep the rifle where it is, William," she told the blonde man. "Don't worry, they won't shoot first." Then she walked forward slowly, hands away from her sides. "We're peaceful," she called out.

"State your business," the man behind the gate said. He was very tall and heavily muscled, square-jawed and fair-skinned. Something about him seemed oddly familiar to the woman.

"I'm here to see DeWitt," she answered, "or whoever's running the place these days."

"And who might you be?" the man challenged.

"I'm Caroline," she told him.

"Caroline," the man repeated, skepticism clouding his voice.

"That's right," she said. "Caroline Farrell, known once upon a time as Echo. Maybe you've heard of me."

The man walked to the side of the tower, opened up a small metal box on the side, and pulled out a telephone handset. He spun a dial a few times, waited, spoke a few words into the phone and then hung up.

"We'll see about that," the man said. "Someone's coming who can verify your claims."

"_Tech,"_ Jorge snarled, and spat on the ground.

The man behind the gate shook his head. "Superstitious yahoos," he muttered in English. And then, in Spanish, "It's safe. It's analog, not digital. No danger."

"So why the hell do you look so familiar?" Caroline asked him.

"You tell me," the man answered.

"What's your name?" she asked.

He stared at her for a long moment, and then said, "Ballard."

"Ballard?" Caroline said, incredulous. Then she looked him over carefully. "Not Paul Ballard. You look a lot like him, though. His son, I guess?"

The man nodded curtly. "Patrick Ballard," he said.

Caroline walked up to the gate. "So, Patrick Ballard, do you mind if I ask who your _mother_ is?"

"Does it matter?"

"Yeah," Caroline said, looking intently into his dark brown eyes. "I think it does."

"She's dead," Ballard said flatly, and turned away. He raised a hand to his forehead to shade his eyes, and added, "And now let's find out if you're telling the truth."

A horse trotted up the road towards the gate, bearing a woman on its back. She was of medium height, Caroline observed, with coppery red hair and a spray of freckles across her cheeks and forehead. She looked to be in her mid-thirties, which, in Caroline's recent experience, meant that she was probably about ten years younger than that. And she was pregnant, about six months along.

"What do we have here?" the pregnant woman asked as she dismounted the horse.

"She claims," explained Ballard, "to be Caroline."

The woman nodded, and walked up to the gate, giving Caroline a curious stare. "So, you're Caroline, are you?" she asked.

"That's right," Caroline answered.

"So am I," the woman said.

"Sorry, but you don't exactly _look_ like me," Caroline pointed out.

"Neither do you," the pregnant woman answered.

"That's a fair point," Caroline conceded. Then, with a note of challenge in her voice, "Who was the first boy you kissed?"

"Tony Locarni," the pregnant woman answered immediately. "Sixth grade, behind the cafeteria. First guy you had sex with?"

"Joe Tanner," Caroline said. "Junior year, in the girls' locker room after a football game. He sneaked up behind me while I was changing out of my cheerleader uniform."

The pregnant woman shook her head and smiled. "Joe Tanner," she said. "What the hell were we thinking?"

Caroline shrugged. "He was pretty hot," she said. "And we were young and stupid."

The pregnant woman turned to Ballard and nodded. "She's the real thing," she said. "Let them in."

While Ballard opened the gate, the pregnant woman said, "We're going to have to figure out what to call you. They call me Iris here."

"Why?" Caroline asked.

"Because once upon a time, there was a little girl who may or may not have been named Iris Miller," the woman told her. "Since 'Caroline' was already taken…"

"My God, you mean I'm still alive?" Caroline asked. "The original body, I mean."

Iris shook her head sadly. "No, not any more," she said. "But she was when I got here."

"You'll take them up to the House?" Ballard asked Iris.

Iris nodded, saying, "Yeah. Topher will need to check them out."

"Topher's still around, huh?" Caroline asked.

"In a manner of speaking," was Iris' cryptic reply.

"By the way, what year is it, exactly? My friends here don't seem to know."

"It's 2044," Iris said.

"God," Caroline said. "We're sixty-one years old."

Iris laughed. "I think we look pretty good for old crones, don't we?"

"I guess so," Caroline said. "Is the House still up in the old Sparrow compound?"

"It is," Iris said. "You might not recognize it, though. We've done a lot of work in the last thirty years."

Caroline nodded. Then she turned to her companions and said, "Let's go!"

"You sure about this, Lupe?" Jorge asked.

Caroline nodded. "I know these people," she assured him. "I brought them here. Just like I brought you. Don't worry, brother of mine, we're safe."

"Amen and hallelujah," Vonda said softly, as they walked through the gate.


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

"So this is the legendary Safe Haven," William said, looking around curiously as Iris led the travelers through the middle of town.

"We're a legend, are we?" Iris asked.

William shrugged. "There are stories. I wasn't sure how much of it to believe. I've heard some really crazy things about the old days, and sometimes they even turn out to be true, but…"

Iris nodded. "So how does the real thing compare to the legend?"

"It's a town," William said. "It's a big town, sure enough, but…"

He looked around, staring at the buildings that lined the dusty main street. There was a handful of weathered stores, and beyond that were several dozen frame buildings that that looked newer, including a large one that was clearly a school, with children running around a playground area outside. Vonda and Jorge were staring at all of the buildings in amazement, but William seemed much less impressed.

"It's just a town," William said. "I mean, I've seen the ruins of L.A. They're enormous – they just go on and on and on. So many people in one place, and the riches they had…" He shook his head. "Safe Haven is supposed to be like something from before the Fall. At least that's how the stories have it."

"Hey, believe me, in the old days this place was _nothing_ like L.A.," Caroline said. "It was just a little one-horse town in the middle of nowhere. If anything, I think there are more people living here now than there were before the Fall. I doubt anyone who lived here in the old days would recognize the place."

"Well, it has been thirty years," Iris explained. "And yeah, we've expanded a lot. We've been bringing survivors in from all over the place. Even I shepherded a few caravans of refugees, before I had kids to worry about." She grinned. "I brought my first load in when I was ten years old."

Caroline stared at her. "You were running refugees at _ten_?"

Iris laughed. "I was imprinted into the body of a ten-year-old girl, yeah."

"Good God." Caroline shuddered. "Puberty all over again."

"I said _exactly_ the same thing," Iris said. "And it's really no easier the second time, believe me."

"I'll take your word for it. When were you imprinted?"

"2019," Iris told her.

"And the original us was still alive then?"

"She was, yeah. She died a couple of years after that, in L.A. She was leading a salvage team in the old downtown, and she got bushwhacked by some gangers."

Jorge spoke up then. "So who's in charge here now? You?"

"I'm on the Council," Iris said. "But the mayor is a woman named Priya."

Caroline grinned. "Sierra's still around, huh?"

"And a few others you'll know," Iris promised, as they turned up a path that led up a steep hillside. "By the way, you'll be on the Council too, once you've had a chance to settle in. All the Carolines are."

"Huh? _All_ of us?" Caroline's eyes went wide. "Just how many of us are there?"

"Three at the moment, counting you," Iris said. "Although you're number six overall."

"Six," Caroline said, shaking her head. "Crazy."

They were approaching a rusty chain-link fence surrounding a cluster of old whitewashed frame buildings. "Still here," Caroline said softly. "After all this time. Remember the first time we were here? It was, what, 2009?"

Iris nodded. "Blind as a bat and high on Jesus," she said with a wry grin.

"Oh, Esther," Caroline said, sighing. "Funny thing was, I liked being her."

Then she stopped in her tracks as two people came out from behind one of the buildings. One was an old woman with steel-gray hair in a tight bun on her head, leaning on Victor's arm and holding a cane with her free hand. Despite her age, she was instantly recognizable as Adelle DeWitt.

Beside her stood a muscular man with thick black hair, handsome despite the ears that stuck out from the sides of his head. He nodded at Iris, and gave the travelers a thorough look-over.

Caroline recognized him too. He was Victor. And he hadn't aged a day.

DeWitt hobbled forward, sweeping the ground in front of her with her cane and squinting hard. "Is it true?" she asked. "We have another Caroline?"

"It's true," Caroline said, suddenly realizing that DeWitt was almost completely blind. "Hi, Addie."

DeWitt reached out a trembling hand, and Caroline took it in her own and guided it to her face. DeWitt gently traced Caroline's features, and smiled. "My goodness, you're quite a bit shorter than the others."

"You're looking good, Mom." DeWitt wasn't actually Caroline's mother, but it was an old joke between them.

DeWitt snorted. "You're also a much worse liar than the others," she scolded. "I'm seventy-six years old. _Victor_ looks good."

"Yeah, I noticed that," Caroline said. "Same as Dr. Saunders."

"So she's still there," DeWitt said with a sigh.

"She doesn't quite remember who she is, but yes, she's still there."

"She got partially wiped a long time ago," Victor explained. "We've sent a couple of expeditions back to try to re-imprint her, but they've never made it to the House. L.A. is a rough place these days."

"_Si_," Jorge agreed. "It is."

"She still remembered enough to operate the chair," Caroline said. "So let me guess – her seemingly eternal youth is connected to that regenerative therapy you both got for your faces, right?"

Victor nodded. "It turned out to have a few, uh, side effects."

"Nice," Caroline said.

"It would be," Victor agreed, "if eternal youth was the _only_ side effect. But it's not."

"What does that mean?" William asked.

Victor stared at him for a moment before saying, "You really, really don't want to know."

Then he turned and said, "Come on. Topher should have the lab powered up by now, and we need to make sure you don't have anything dangerous in your heads. After that you can all have lunch and a shower."

"Food?" Vonda spoke up for the first time since the gate, looking hopeful.

"Shower? Hey, let's get going then," Caroline said eagerly.


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Victor led the travelers along a trail that wound around a hill behind the compound. Finally, they reached an opening in the side of the hill. Thick iron bars blocked the entrance to a tunnel that sloped downward into the darkness.

"What's this?" William asked.

"It's an old copper mine," Victor explained. "This place started out as a mining town. There are tunnels and shafts all over the place." He took out a large key and unlocked a gate. "It's a good place to keep all of our sensitive equipment – no signal in the world is going to make it through this hill."

Caroline nodded. "Sounds like a good setup. So Topher lives down there now?"

Victor chuckled. "No, he's usually up in the compound with the rest of us. We only power up the equipment when we need it, which isn't often any more."

"Makes sense. But the last time I saw Topher he sort of liked hiding in dark holes."

"He's changed," Victor told her.

Caroline shrugged. "And you haven't. Funny world we live in."

"Yeah," Victor said, frowning. He motioned everyone into the tunnel, and then locked the gate behind them. "Let's get going."

There were electric lights spaced every fifty feet or so along the shaft, giving some dim illumination. They passed side tunnels that were filled with wooden crates and old plastic barrels. Finally Victor stopped at one side tunnel that had a thick metal door. A few yards beyond it, the main tunnel was blocked by another gate.

"This is it," Victor said, unlocking the door.

"What's down there?" William asked, pointing down the main tunnel.

"Nothing you want to mess with," Victor said curtly. He shoved hard against the iron door, which screeched on its hinges.

Inside, the walls were lined with computers and video monitors. A chair that Caroline recognized as a crude replica of the Dollhouse's imprinting chair occupied the center of the room. Beside it stood a tall, middle-aged black man.

"Showtime," the man said. "So which one of them is supposed to be the latest and greatest Caroline?"

"Um, I am," Caroline said uncertainly.

The strange man grinned. "Step right up, then. And don't worry about the chair, it's perfectly safe."

"_Tech_," Jorge swore.

"Not just any tech, dude," the man assured him. "_Safe_ tech. Don't worry, it's not set up to mess with your mind, only to let me have a peek inside. The imprinting hardware isn't even hooked up right now. I only install it when we need it. Doesn't hurt to be on the safe side."

"Who are you?" Caroline asked.

"What? Oh, of course," the man said, smacking his forehead. "It's the new body. I'm Topher."

"_You're_ Topher?" Caroline repeated, incredulous.

"Yeah," the man said. "Well, Topher 2.0, anyway." He motioned towards the chair. "Have a seat, and we'll get this started."

"Victor was right," Caroline said as she sat down in the chair. "You've changed."

"It happens," Topher said. "The person who had this body before me wasn't really happy with it, and we needed a new me, so here I am."

"Who had it before you?" Caroline asked suspiciously.

"Well, you see…" Topher hesitated before saying, "You did."

"I did?" Caroline gasped. "I was a _guy_?"

Topher nodded. "Caroline 4.0, alias Carl. Apparently you just weren't cool with being a man, and asked to be wiped."

Caroline shuddered. "Ugh."

"Hey, it's really not that bad," Topher assured her as he attached some electrodes to her forehead and temples. "Now, this is going to tickle a bit," he warned her.

"You always say that," Caroline said, "and it always hurts like hell."

"I've made a few improvements," Topher said, throwing a switch. "It's not so bad in scanning mode any more."

Caroline squirmed a bit in the chair. "Ooh, that _does_ tickle!" she said.

"Told you," Topher said.

"Uh, what exactly is he doing?" William asked.

"It's just a scan, dude," Topher said. "I look inside her head, and I see…" He stared at the monitors, and nodded. "Yeah, that looks like our Caroline, sure enough. Let me just check some of the deeper levels…"

He twisted a dial, and Caroline gasped. "Hey, stop that!" she snapped.

"Hey, I'm not touching you," Topher protested. "And the sensation is an unavoidable side effect."

"Well, I don't like it," Caroline snarled.

"The monitors tell a different story," Topher said with a wink. "But we're done, anyway." He threw a switch, powering down the chair.

"Well," Caroline said doubtfully. "I guess that wasn't too bad."

"And you're all clean," Topher said. "No viruses, no nasty programming, no head lice. I dub thee Caroline 6.0."

"Speaking of all clean," Caroline said, "I was promised a shower after this."

"Soon as everyone's done, I'll show you where it is," Victor assured her.

"All right, then," Caroline said impatiently. "Who's next? Come on, Jorge, don't be shy. You saw that it's safe. Get in that chair."

* * *

Once they'd all been scanned – including, at Topher's insistence, Vonda's child – Victor led them back to the compound.

"Bath house is over there," Victor said, pointing. "Iris is supposed to be finding you some clean clothes. Oh, and we've kept the co-ed shower setup – hope that doesn't bother any of you."

Caroline shrugged. "We've been on the road together for almost three months," she said. "We've seen plenty of each other. I think we'll deal with it okay."

Victor nodded. "Dining room is over there, then," he said.

"_Bueno,"_ Jorge said. "Food first."

"I'm with you on that one," Vonda said.

"Sorry, but I have been dirty for too long," Caroline said. "I'll meet you there after I'm clean."

"Count me in," William agreed.

The shower turned out to be everything Caroline had hoped for. "Oh God, _hot_ water!" she shouted. "And real soap!"

After months on the trail, scrubbing herself clean felt like a real luxury. The soap was homemade and harsher on her skin than old-fashioned soap, but she didn't care; she lathered and scrubbed and rinsed enthusiastically to get the dirt out of her skin and hair and nails. And William was more than willing to help her scrub her back. "Oh, that feels good," she sighed as his fingers kneaded her shoulder blades.

"How about this?" William said, taking a step closer and wrapping his arms around her from behind.

"That feels good too," Caroline said, leaning back against his chest.

"Sure does," William said, as his hands started to wander.

"Mm, slow down there, tiger," Caroline said with a giggle. "Save it for tonight, alright?"

"Why not now?" William bent down to nuzzle her ear.

Caroline closed her eyes and fought the temptation to give in. "William, please!" she said. "I promise, tonight you can have anything you want. You can have _everything_ you want. Just not now, okay?"

"Promise?"

"I promise," she said, turning around to kiss him. "Honest. In a real bed, too." She stood on her tiptoes to give him a passionate kiss.

"Um, am I interrupting?" a voice said from behind them.

William jumped. Caroline turned her head and saw Iris standing at the doorway to the shower room, holding a pile of towels and clean clothing.

"Not quite," Caroline said. "What's up?"

"I just brought you these," Iris said with a grin. "I'll leave them here, and when you two are done, I'll meet you in the dining hall." She gave them a wink and turned to go.

* * *

Jorge and Vonda were stunned by the amount of food available in the dining room. They hastily made some sandwiches, and proceeded to wolf them down. Victor watched them eat; it was clear that they had been on short rations for a long time.

Finally they began to slow down. _"Bueno,"_ Jorge said in satisfaction. "You eat like this all the time?"

Victor nodded. "Most of the time, yeah. We've had a couple of lean years here and there, from droughts or locusts, but we've got enough stored up to get through them when they happen."

Jorge grunted. "Maybe Lupe knew what she was doing bringing us here, then."

"Lupe?" Victor asked.

"You keep calling her Caroline," Jorge said. "She's my sister. Was my sister."

"So what's your story?" Victor asked.

Jorge looked reluctant, but Vonda said, "You tell him the first part. I need to feed Shimone anyway." She turned away from them and pulled her baby out of her sling, raising her to her breast to nurse.

Jorge shrugged. "Not much to tell. We were shepherds. We lived in the San Gabriel mountains, above the old city." He closed his eyes and said, "Lupe went missing one day. When we found her, she was – blank."

"Wiped," Victor said, nodding grimly. "Then what?"

Jorge shook his head. "I couldn't leave her like that. I've seen what happens to women who get blanked. Every man who wants her – I couldn't leave her like that."

"Sounds like a pretty deep wipe," Victor said.

"Deep, yeah," Jorge agreed. "She didn't remember nothing. She couldn't even talk, she'd starve if you didn't give her food to eat…"

"I'm sorry," Victor said.

"Then my _compadre_ William came by," Jorge said. "He's a _salvamentero_ – he goes down to the old city and brings stuff back, right?"

"Salvager," Victor said. "I've done some of that myself."

"I've known him for years – he's from the north, Fresno he says. He trades with us, food for – things he finds. Well, he knew stories – they say there's a place down in the middle of the old city, where the _pandilleros_, the gangers, don't go. They say in this place, there's a ghost who can bring people back who've been blanked, right?" Jorge closed his eyes. "And it's real. We went there and found it. It's deep under the ground. And yeah, there's a ghost, a woman in a white dress. But she didn't bring back Lupe. She brought back this Caroline instead."

Victor shook his head. "There was nothing else she could have done. She was wiped too deeply. If she'd just lost her memories of herself, but could still talk and take care of herself, yeah, then there would have been a chance. But as deep as you said…" He gave Jorge a sad look. "I'm sorry, man. Your sister is gone."

"Had to try, you understand?" Jorge said.

"Yeah, I get that," Victor said. "And yeah, I know the place you're talking about. I used to live there."

"So you know the ghost lady?"

"Yeah," Victor said. "Her name used to be Claire. She's called Whisky now. A friend from the old days."

"She's not all there, is she?"

"Not any more," Victor said sadly. "So," he continued, turning towards Vonda, "where do you come in?"

"She's a _Sangre_," Jorge said.

Vonda nodded. "I'm Blood, yeah," she said. "Or I was. Until I got knocked with Shimone. Then my bros turned me out." An angry look crossed her face. "Her daddy is Crip."

"We found her after we left – that place," Jorge said. "She was beat up, starving. Lupe – Caroline – said we had to take her with us." Jorge sighed. "I thought – Lupe, you know, she was always the one who looked after the lambs who lost there mothers. Kittens, puppies, whatever – she was always taking care of something, right? So I thought, maybe there's a little bit of Lupe still inside there. Taking on someone else's problems – it's something she would do."

"It's also something our Caroline would do," Victor warned him. "Don't get your hopes up."

Jorge grunted. "Anyway, she told us about this place, said she was going there. What else could I do but go to look out for her?"

"So you all just followed along after her, huh?" Victor said, chuckling. "Yeah, Caroline has that effect on people."

"Well, I'm grateful, anyway," Vonda said. "She took care of me when I needed it. Ain't that what your bros are supposed to do?"

Victor nodded. "It's what we do here."


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter 4**

"Ah, that was good," William said as he polished off a large sandwich. "Best I've eaten in months. Years, even. Maybe ever." He patted his stomach.

"We do okay for ourselves here," Iris said with a smile. "Speaking of, we need to get you and your people assigned to some rooms. Want to come see the dorms?"

"Sure!" Caroline said as she stood up from the table. She squeezed William's shoulder and said, "You coming?"

"Actually, I'd appreciate it if he could stay and talk business for a few minutes," Victor said. "I want to find out about his salvage work."

"Okay then," Caroline said. "See you later, all right?"

"Sure thing," William said. He grinned as he watched Caroline walk out the door. Then he turned to Victor and asked, "So what do you need to know?"

"I just have some questions about things you've seen in L.A.," Victor said. "Jorge said you were in the salvage business."

William nodded. "Yeah, that's what I do. I've been all through the ruins on the coast, as far south as Pendleton."

"But you're out of Fresno?" Victor asked.

"Near there. A little town at the foot of the Sierras called Springville." He frowned and added, "I didn't go into Fresno too much. Too many Smashers."

"Smashers?"

"People who really, really don't like old tech," William explained. "They don't know enough to know what tech is safe to use and what isn't. It's all bad mojo to them – they say God put a curse on all old tech. Anything more complicated than a windmill, they smash it."

Victor nodded slowly. "They must not think too much of your line of work, then."

"You got that right. They're all up and down the Central Valley. Even Jorge is almost one of them, for all that we've been friends for years."

"But you still helped him out?"

William nodded. "Hey, it's bad for people who get blanked. Especially women. And I owed Jorge a favor. So when he said his sister had gotten hit…" He shrugged. "I couldn't tell him 'no', could I?"

"So you found your way into the old Dollhouse."

William nodded. "The gangers have stories about it. The Bloods know me – I've done business with them. They said there was this place in West Hollywood that was haunted. It was worth a shot." He shook his head. "We just didn't get what Jorge hoped for, that's all."

"So here's the thing I really can't figure," Victor said. "After that, why did you keep going with them? Why come all this way just on Caroline's word that we'd be here? You could have gone back to doing salvage like you always did, but you stuck with them."

William grinned, and nodded his head. "Yeah, that doesn't make a whole lot of sense, does it? I kept asking myself the same questions."

"So?" Victor challenged.

"So I was the kid who always pestered the old folks for stories about the old days," William explained. "My grandparents, even my parents remembered a little bit about what it was like. I always wanted to hear more about it." He shrugged. "Then when I was sixteen, I joined a salvage crew to see how real all the stories were. I was running my own crew within three years."

"And you'd heard stories about us," Victor said.

"Yeah," William said. "And when Caroline said that Safe Haven wasn't just a fable, but was real – well, I just couldn't resist checking it out. I figured, at worst I'd find some new places to salvage. At best…" He looked around. "Well, it really did turn out to be real."

Victor nodded. "All right. You know a lot about old technology, then?"

"Some," William said. "If you need some salvage done…"

"We do. There are a lot of parts we need to find to repair our equipment. If you can help us, great."

"I'm you're man, then," William said. "There is one thing I'm curious about, though."

"What's that?" Victor asked.

"Caroline says you're from the old days," William said, staring at him. "But you don't look any older than I am."

Victor nodded. "Yeah. My sixty-second birthday was last week."

"So then…" William hesitated. "There's some kind of tech that keeps you from getting older?"

"There is," Victor said softly. "A few of us got it, not long before the Fall. It was supposed to heal some old injuries, clear up some scars." He closed his eyes. "It wound up doing a lot more than that."

William whistled. "Wow. Too bad you don't all have it."

"No," Victor snapped. "It would be a nightmare if everyone had it. This isn't something you want."

"What? Why wouldn't I?" William asked. "Who wouldn't want to live forever? Seems to me it's just something you want to keep for yourself."

Victor fixed him with a cold stare. "No. Believe me, if I could get rid of it, I could. But I can't." He frowned, and added, "Besides, I'm not going to live forever anyway. Eventually this stuff they put in me is going to stop working. When that happens… When it happens, I just hope I have the courage to put a bullet through my head before it's too late." He closed his eyes. "You haven't seen what happens when the nanoregenerators go bad. It's… not a pretty sight."

William shifted uncomfortably in his seat. "Oh. Sorry, I guess. It just seems strange – you've got what seems like a gift, but…"

"Something we should have learned long before the Fall," Victor said, "is that technology _always_ turns and bites you if used the wrong way. Those Smashers you talk about have that much right, at least."

* * *

"God, my dorm room at Fremont was bigger than this," Caroline said, standing in the small bedroom that Iris had shown her. It wasn't much bigger than the twin bed that was pushed against one wall.

Iris smiled. "We spend most of our time in the common areas," she explained. "Besides, we had to share that dorm room, remember?"

"Right," Caroline said. "And you think I won't be sharing this one?"

"William will have his own room."

"Uh-huh," Caroline said skeptically. "And we'll either both be there, or both in here, every night."

"You're really that serious about him?" Iris asked.

"Oh, God," Caroline said, sitting down on the bed. "You have no idea."

Iris sat down next to her. "Tell me."

"It's like…" Caroline began. "Tell me something – is sex… different for you in that body?"

"You mean, different from our original body?" Iris asked. "Yeah, some. I mean, I'm a couple of inches shorter, and my breasts are bigger than they were, so yeah, it's not exactly the same."

"But is it better?"

"Better?" Iris looked thoughtful. "I don't know. Not really better, or worse. I mean, it was pretty good before, right?"

"Yeah, it was," Caroline said. "But now… I don't know if it's something about this body, or just that William is that good, or the combination of the two somehow. But – it's amazing. I didn't know it could be this good. The things he does to me…"

"Wow," Iris said. "You're tempting me to drag William off to bed to find out for myself."

"Huh?" Caroline looked startled. She pointed at Iris' pregnant belly and said, "Looks to me like you already have yourself a man, sister."

"Oh, yes," Iris said with an impish grin. "Several."

"Several?"

Iris laughed. "Hey, it's different now," she said. "We're not all that in to monogamous relationships around here. The baby's father is named Gabriel – I'll have to introduce you to him. And yeah, I do still sleep with him fairly often, but he's in too much demand for me to keep him all to myself."

"Um," Caroline said, taking that in. "So the two of you aren't…"

"Married?" Iris grinned. "Nope. Didn't marry the fathers of my other two kids either."

"God, girl, you're a regular tramp!"

"Not by our standards," Iris protested. "The father of my first baby is a guy named Zone. You'll meet him at the Council meeting tonight. I had a serious crush on him when I was going through puberty the second time, and as soon as I was physically old enough not to creep him out…" She grinned.

Caroline shook her head. "I can't even imagine that. You were, what, a thirty-year-old woman in a ten-year-old body?"

Iris nodded. "It made things difficult, yeah. Anyway, my second child's father is Victor."

"_Victor?"_ Caroline gasped.

"Hey, don't tell me you've never thought about it," Iris teased. "I know better. It was one of the many times that he and Priya were broken up, and he's got those cute puppy-dog eyes, you know? I wasn't intending to get pregnant that time, but hey, he's a good dad." She smiled and said, "Seventeen other women agree with me on that score."

"Seventeen?" Caroline sighed. "It's going to take me some time to get used to this place," she said. "So how many _other_ kids do we have?"

"Well, there's Patrick, who you met at the gate," Iris said. "You've probably guessed, but his mother was Original Recipe Caroline. Caroline 2.0, who we called Echo, had one too, but she didn't live long. And Rose, a.k.a. Caroline 5.0, has three. You'll meet her at Council too – she's teaching down in the village school right now."

"Great," Caroline said. "Another one of me. My head hurts already just trying to keep it all straight."


End file.
